My Poor Pup Needs Some Prayers/Thoughts/Wishes etc

TKzilla

FI and I adopted the cutest most obnoxious beagle/hound mix puppy from our local Humane Society in July (he was my birthday present).

We took him to the vet today and he has a really really bad UTI. The vet sent out a urinalysis to see if he possibly had a kidney infection.

The vet assured us there wasn't anything we could've done to prevent it. He had a sinus infection a few weeks ago that weakened his immune system so he didn't stand a chance at fighting this one.

I feel like a crap pet owner Poor Jackson baby.

PMeg819

Our first dog was a rescue. We dealt with so many of these little issues over the first year. Honestly, I think some rescues are so used to being sick/neglected/mistreated before being rescued that they are good at hiding any sign of illness. Hell, 6 years later and we basically had to pry her mouth open to get a good look at the mass growing in her mouth. She had a hunk of her jaw removed but acts like it was nothing. Dogs are resilient and in time you'll pick up the little cues that let you know something is wrong.

6fsn

Hope your pup is okay.  Look at those ears!

VarunaTT

*raises hand*  Another beagle owner here.  And I've had to go through the kidney infection stuff.  It's not that bad.  Wrap the bills in cheese and he'll think he's in heaven.  

Especially since he's a rescue (I think they're worse about getting into the trash at first), keep all of your trashcans covered and not able to get into.  Bennett LOVES to get in any trashcan and that's what's caused most of his issues.  We had to change all of the bathroom cans to the pedal type.

Of course, then you get the 2nd dog who's smart enough to figure out that hitting the pedal makes the lid go up and it's a new ballgame.  Damn Zelda!  

TKzilla

hahaha he actually has no qualms about taking his medicine. He eats everything anyway. He's almost tall enough to get into our kitchen trashcan (it's a step can) so I'm not sure how we're going to fix that problem. He's crate trained so he's never home alone and loose, but damn he's fast! We keep our bedroom and bathroom doors shut to limit his access. 

I swear, it's kind of like having a four-legged baby!

Jackson is skeptical.

thejucheidea

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_wedding-woes_my-poor-pup-needs-some-prayersthoughtswishes-etc?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:47Discussion:b7fd6d23-464c-49c6-b406-d197e57e234fPost:3b404bbe-ea93-4ebd-a7ec-cc61dc485e51">Re: My Poor Pup Needs Some Prayers/Thoughts/Wishes etc</a>:
[QUOTE]I swear, it's kind of like having a four-legged baby!
Posted by CourtaniaLynn[/QUOTE]
And we have three of them! The older two are pretty self sufficient but still get sick, but the Corgi puppy is a destructive little bugger who gets bored or upset when we leave, so she shreads all the paper ever. She's also fond of floor pooping.

And they were right earlier talking about rescues being good at hiding health stuff. All three of our babies are rescues. The first one had a bad flea infestation then broke his leg the first day we had him -- he let one little yelp and that was it, so I'm glad I was there to see what happened or it would have been a mystery. The second one had every horrible symptom of distemper without actually having distemper and ended up having brain damage from the fevers she had. So far, we haven't had any big health issues with the Corgi, but she has taken a lot of effort to socialize.

Sweet babies :3.

TKzilla

It's hard for me to think of Jackson as a "rescue" because he was nine weeks old when we adopted him and he was brought in and labeled a stray.

Who the hell finds that adorable little beast and brings him in? I would've taken him home if I saw him on the side of the road. No collar, no problem :P

Man I love this pup. He's a biter though! The vet recommended the Bitter Apple No-Chew stuff. She said there are the rare exceptions of dogs that actually enjoy the taste... yeah. That'd be my dog.

thejucheidea

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_wedding-woes_my-poor-pup-needs-some-prayersthoughtswishes-etc?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:47Discussion:b7fd6d23-464c-49c6-b406-d197e57e234fPost:1849f7c1-de35-48b6-897d-da6bf8f69bd6">Re: My Poor Pup Needs Some Prayers/Thoughts/Wishes etc</a>:
[QUOTE]The vet recommended the Bitter Apple No-Chew stuff. She said there are the rare exceptions of dogs that actually enjoy the taste... yeah. That'd be my dog.
Posted by CourtaniaLynn[/QUOTE]
Yeah, we got that for Zoë. She doesn't like it, but she forgets that she doesn't like it within about five seconds and starts licking again. It's a loop of her forgetting then being completely disgusted. One of my coworkers has three St Bernards and a Great Dane and his youngest St Bernard treats the bitter apple as a tasty treat added to the rugs she loves chewing.

We got Bellamy and Zoë at about nine weeks, but they came from a rescue organization rather than a breeder or pet shop, so they're rescues. They just also happened to be the dogs that no one wanted because of illnesses and we were just stupid enough to be the ones to get them... and here we are six and seven years later :x. Freya was nine months old when we got her though and she's DEFINITELY a freaked out rescue situation with a tough life prior to being spoiled rotten by us.

TKzilla

Awww I love your dog names!

I pretty much feel like the bitter apple stuff hasn't deterred Jackson from biting us, it's just changed our flavor. So instead of vanilla ice cream, he gets apple :P

VarunaTT

We would whine at Zelda when she was going through her mouthy period and biting.  She would stop pretty quickly.  We did the same thing with Bennett and it worked with him too.  Bennett only did the ankle biting once, b/c a swift finger thump on the edge of a beagle nose sets off sneezing and seemed to stick in his memory.

Bennett was the chewer that responded to Tabasco sauce.  

Zelda was Satan's puppy and she finally had to be muzzled whenever we left (still is) and for awhile whenever she went outside, b/c she was so destructive.  We had Nylabones for them, but those had to stay inside, since Bennett is a hoarder and buries everything.

**O-Face**

Your poor pup.  He looks so devilishly cute.  I am not convinced. 

My second dog was a rescue and had all kinds of garbage digging issues.  As well as obsessive toy play.  I'm going to try to re-introduce toys to him the next few months...a little at a time in limited amounts to see if I can just leave toys out again.  He gets so obsessive he can't leave them be...and will play until he's injured or just bloody.  Quite a handful.

thejucheidea

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_wedding-woes_my-poor-pup-needs-some-prayersthoughtswishes-etc?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special%20Topic%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:47Discussion:b7fd6d23-464c-49c6-b406-d197e57e234fPost:f8ed0b3c-b495-48b2-87ee-48b3cd7b0525">Re: My Poor Pup Needs Some Prayers/Thoughts/Wishes etc</a>:
[QUOTE]We would whine at Zelda when she was going through her mouthy period and biting.
Posted by VarunaTT[/QUOTE]
We did the same thing to Bellamy. The only problem is that it's made him a little neurotic and he is afraid of squeaky toys because he thinks that he's hurting us when they squeak :x.

TKzilla

I haven't tried the nose-thumping idea. Right now we're trying a spray bottle of water to the face. He hates being wet (big baby) so I feel kind of bad about using his fear against him. 

He's almost tall enough to get into our tall kitchen trash can so I'm going to have to figure out some kind of puppy-proofing for that.

We've tried different techniques for the biting - I tried whining/yelping, I think it only excited him more. We tried shaking a tin can full of coins, that didn't really phase him after a week or so. We've thought about just stopping play and walking away, but it's hard because I don't want to use his crate as punishment. The bitter stuff didn't work, so now we're trying the spray bottle. We'll see how it goes. It seems to piss him off more than deter him!

He's a handful, that's fordamnsure but man. When he jumps up on the couch and weasels his way in between me and FI and falls asleep... you can't help but love the crap out him. I can't stay mad for long

This dog is so "devilishly cute" that he barges into the bedroom if the door is cracked, steals a shoe and takes off running through the house. Once, we were on the way to the vet and he was in his travel carrier. We stuffed some towels in the back of it to limit the space so he wouldn't be tempted to walk around in there while the car was moving. Well apparently he really had to go, because he pooped right there in my lap (gross). So this dog (I swear to you) pulls one of the towels from the back, lays it over the poop, then lays on TOP of it and looks at me like "What? No poop in here. I don't know what that smell is."

Too freaking clever.

VarunaTT

I don't particularly enjoy negative training, but man, Bennett was a booger.  Zelda is very positive reinforcement based (except for the muzzle), so she's usually easy to train into yes/no, good/bad behaviors.  Bennett just does what he wants and then blinks innocently at you with his ears all perked up and soft hound eyes going, "You can't really be mad at me, right?"

He also had to finally get a bark collar, b/c he would start barking when we left, stop when we came in,  So, I didn't have anyway to stop his behavior w/out reinforcing it (we came in to punish, but he didn't care b/c we came back, yay!).  I think he was shocked twice and it completely stopped.  Though I felt HORRIBLE.  But I made DH shock himself first.  He said it hurt, but wasn't OMG I WANT TO DIE levels.

GBCK

Our Dawg is like Bennett...and she's not 'food motivated' so trying to give her positives is hard!

They recover from UTIs fast at least CL

My dog was lying in the flower bed (I have no idea how she got in there) yesterday when I left her crippled ass alone for 20 minutes to get the baby down for a nap, barking at the neighbor dogs...she's a little schitt even when she's helpless.  good thing she's cute

VarunaTT

Oh, Bennett loves the food.  It's how I know he's just being damned stubborn.  B/c he can perform perfectly when the food is being offered, it's just afterwards that he returns to "I do what I want b/c it's better than what you have" behavior.

The one that is the worst is coming inside.  He'll come inside awesome 9/10 times both with and without food.  The 10th time?  Means there's a bunny involved and he doesn't care what I have in my hand, he needs to get the bunny.  I know it's part of the hound; it doesn't make it any less irritating.

GBCK

that's what we have, except w/o her caring about the food...although she'll come for a frisbee

TKzilla

Jackson's food motivated, I just think he considers us a "sometimes-food". He knows what it sounds like when I put my hand in the treat box. Like I said, too damn smart. 

Once this UTI clears up, we're going to get him in some puppy classes so he can learn some basic commands and socialize with other puppies. We did manage to teach him to sit and lay down on our own though. We're very impressed with ourselves